"Hey, whose leg do you gotta gagoosh to get an Amaretto Disaronno around here?"

                                                -Vinnie, Family Guy, "Christmas Guy"

Tradition wraps itself around The Holidays like a thick, Irish cable-knit sweater: shopping, socializing, gifting, baking, travelling and visiting with family - those fams carefully curated, as well as those into which we are born. Some fams are just wackadoo and amusing enough to engage you into horridly uncomfortable, severely awkward card games. (Note: Cards Against Humanity NOT rec for play with children, nieces, nephews, parents or grandarents. Equal opp embarrassment. Trust Moi.) Some fams are just conservative and deathly boring enough to engage catatonia. Either way, if you are a fellow Earthling, your Holiday traditions are, likely, equally eagerly and dreadfully anticipated. All are carefully navigated. We at JennyPop understand, and empathize with, both extremes of The Holidays pendulum. Ergo, similar to her Thanksgiving Episode Recs, JennyPop has curated a of fave holiday viewing, just for you: season and episodes numbers included (i.e. S1e1) for ease of searching.

Forget ye not FOX holiday animation! Even when some episodes aren't quite en point - debates run year-round throughout a community of online Comic Book Guys - Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and The Simpsons (Simpsons now only avail on Disney+ , Amazon or live network) holiday fare give some of us the warm fuzzies in an already cozy time of year. As I penned for my Thanksgiving TV list, holiday programming is a tasty, gluttonous treat for a viewership family comprised of non-adulting adult-toddlers - totally includes Moi - and ready to celebrate a year's end in the silly and simple joy of twisted family-humour.

All, new, FOX Animation Domination Christmas fare airs Sunday, December 13, 2020:

• The Simpsons:  "A Springfield Summer Christmas for Christmas" (S32e10) Springfield is mis-en-scène for a Hollywood production; and Principal Skinner finds love at the Holidays. 

 

• Family Guy: "The First No L" (S19e9) Lois has had enough making Christmas sans any help and takes a break this year, leaving the rest of the fam to save the season.

 

• Bob's Burgers: "Yachty or Nice" (S11e10) Bob is leery when his restaurant is hired to cater the Glencrest Yacht Club's annual, holiday boat parade; and, Louise sees herself as a boat owner.  

 

*Note: Because The Goldbergs serves up cheerful, Christmukkah joy each season: "Hanukkah on the Seas" (S8e7) airs Wednesday, December 2, 202020 at 8PST/EST.

Now, pour a glass of cab, pour out some spice tea, or craft a festive, adult libation and get to Holiday viewing! As with Thanksgiving TV and film recs,, JennyPop doesn't rank shows, just lists them; as not everyone might agree with a ranking. All are winners though, or they wouldn't be on the list. Season and episode designations (i.e., S1e1) are listed alongside, for easy-peasy searches. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Joyful Viewing to all!

 

 

Fave Christmas and Hanukkah TV Episodes!

Bob's Burgers

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins" (3e9)

"Christmas in the Car" (S4e8)

"Nice-Capades" (S6e5)

"Last Gingerbread House on the Left" (S7e7)

"The Bleakening: Parts I and II" (S8e6/7)

Better Off Sled (S9e10)

"Have Yourself a Maily Linda Christmas" (S10e10)

"Yachty or Nice" (S11e10)

Family Guy

"A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" (S3e16)

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph" (S11e8)

"Christmas Guy" (S12e8)

"How the Griffin Stole Christmas" (S15e9)

"Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas" (S16e9)

"The First No L" (S19e9)

The Goldbergs

"A Christmas Story" (aka Super Hanukkah) (S3e10)

"Han Ukkah Solo" (S4e10)

"Yippee Ki Yay Melon Farmer" (S6e10)

"It's a Wonderful Life" (S7e10)

"Hanukkah on the Seas" (S8e7)

At Home with Amy Sedaris

"Holidays" (S1e7)

Stranger Things

"Holly, Jolly" (S1e3)

"A Stranger Things Christmas" (a ST x Peanuts stand-alone, animation short)

Modern Family

"Undeck the Halls"(S1e10)

"Express Christmas" (S3e10)

"The Old Man and the Tree" (S5e10)

"White Christmas" (S7e9)

"The Last Christmas" (S11e8)

The Big Bang Theory

"The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis" (S2e11)

"The Maternal Congruence" (S3e11)

"The Santa Simulation" (S6e11)

"The Cooper Extraction" (S7e11)

"The Clean Room Infiltration" (S8e11)

The King of Queens

"Noel Cowards" (S1e11)

"Net Prophets" (S2e12)

"Better Camera" (S3e11)

"Mentalo Case" (S5e11)

"Santa Claustrophobia" (S6e11)

"Silent Mite" (S7e7)

"Baker's Doesn't" (S8e11)

30Rock

"Ludachristmas"(S2e9)

"Christmas Special"(S3e6)

"Secret Santa" (S4e8)

"Christmas Attack Zone"(S5e10)

Arrested Development

"Afternoon Delight" (S2e6)

The Simpsons  (a sampling, 18 eps avail) 

"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" (S1e1)

"Mr. Plow" (S4e9)

"Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" (S9e10)

"Grift of the Magi" (S11e9)

"Simpsons Christmas Stories"(S17e9)

"Holidays of Future Passed" (S23e9)

"White Christmas Blues" (S25e8)

"'Tis the 30th Season" (S30e10)

"Bobby, It's Cold Outside" (S31e10)

Seinfeld

"The Red Dot" (S3e12)

"The Race" (S6e10)

"The Strike" (aka Festivus) (S9e10)

Decorating Disney

Holiday Magic 

Northern Exposure

"Seoul Mates" (S3e10)

The O.C.

"The Best Chrismukkah Ever"(S1e13)

Scrubs

"My Own Personal Jesus" (S1e11)

King of the Hill

"The Unbearable Blindness of Laying" (S2e11)

"Pretty, Pretty Dresses" (S3e9)

"'Twas the Nut Before Christmas" (S5e8)

"Livin' onn Reds, Vitamin C and Propane" (S8e7)

The Office (U.S.)

"Christmas Party" (S2e10)

"Benihana Christmas" (S3e10)

"Moroccan Christmas" (S5e11)

"Secret Santa" (S6e13)

"Classy Christmas" (S7e11/12)

"Dwight Christmas" (S9e9)

Rugrats

"The Santa Experience" (S2e14)

"Chanukah" (S4e1)

"Babes in Toyland" (S9e3/4)

Mr. Bean

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean (S1e7)

 

Stand-alone Holiday Specials

A Stranger Things Christmas (ST x Peanuts mashup, aka Merry Christmas, Will Byers)

Keeping up Appearances

"A Very Merry Hyacinth"

Little House on the Prairie

"The Christmas They Never Forgot"

The Office (U.K.)

"Christmas Specials"

Wonderpets

"Save the Reindeer!"

Mr. Bean

"Merry Christmas Mr. Bean"

Any Stella Artois commercials

 

Fave Christmas and Hanukkah Films!

A Charlie Brown Christmas (duh!)

A Christmas Story

Elf

Switchmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Winnie the Pooh: Christmas of Giving

A Madea Christmas

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A Family Man

Love, Actually

The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas

Santa and the Three Bears

A Muppet Christmas Carol

Black Adder's A Christmas Carol

Mickey's Christmas Carol

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

A Garfield Christmas

Lady Gaga and The Muppets' Holiday Spectacular

 

If I neglected anything, please let me know! I'm toujours happy to amend my lists!

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Happy Chanukah, Gledelig Jul, Froehliche Weihnachten, God Jul and Mele Kalikimaka to everyone!!

 

When is $750K a pittance? When it's Hollywood-oriented and gets you a feature-length film, shot over sixty-days and employs no less than the formidable and jauntily avuncular Elliott Gould (M*A*S*H, Ocean's Eleven, Friends). When do you say Mazel Tov? When that film blasts out of the holiday film gate like Seabiscuit on fire and ignites a dynamite line straight to Hanukkah and Christmas movie mainstays.

Switchmas (2012, Von Piglet Productions) is so ding-dang cheerful, so sweet, so good-natured, so family-friendly, so inclusive, so sprightly, so hopeful that one just might puke from its syrupy tinge, if it was not such a fun film. Switchmas is Disney-quality, without the Disney-dollars. Should you find your list of holiday flicks in need of an update, would it kill you to add Switchmas? It slots in beautifully with the other tent poles holding firm in the genre: Elf, A Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Christmas Vacation et al.

Mr. Gould, known lovingly to so many of us as Jack Geller, Ross & Monica's dad, isn't the only point-of-light in the Little Film That Could. David Deluise (Wizards of Waverly Place, Stargate-SG1) portrays Max Finkelstein, an optimistic auteur on the fringes of Hollywood and president of Finkelstein Films: "Making the World You Want To See". Max believes he has everything but "a name" to catapult him to Woody Allenesque fame and respect. (If The Reindeer From Planet 9 can't get him an Oscar, what can?) As Max tells a potential client (art imitates life here), "Believe me! You don't need big money to make a movie with big heart!" When "a name" drops in his lap, Max gets the filmic opportunity of a lifetime. The name appears in the form of has-been, aging, bubble-gum starlet Jennifer Cameo, best-known for her role as Desperate Jane (played by Julianne Christie). I am Desperate Jane! I have fans and a blog and I am in control!, Cameo rants desperately to anyone left in her fan-base. To optimize Ms. Cameo's last gasp for stardom, Max must personally rip out and eat his own son's heart ... metaphorically-speaking, of course.

 

"Its' the Finkelstein Christmas tree!"

"Finkelsteins do not have Christmas trees."

"Why not?"

"You know why! We're Jewish!"

"Well do we have to be?"

"Ira!"

"I mean at Christmas?"

"You know what? Heritage, tradition, culture. Who needs it?"

 

Resistance is futile. Therein lies the rub. Little Ira J. Finkelstein wants nothing more than to celebrate Christmas. "He's obsessed with The Christmas!" To assuage this desire, Max and Mama Rosie agree to take him to Aspen for Christmas, land of twinkle lights, snowy windowsills, hot cocoa and Louis Vuitton luggage. Then, Miss Cameo is attached to The Reindeer From Planet 9 and Aspen go bye-bye. "If this goes good, we can go to Aspen every year". Instead, even after a heart-melting plea from Ira about promises and mishpucha, Mom and Dad ship him off, to where else? "Florida, for The Christmas". Now, a holiday with the Flah-ri-dah grandparents includes a dream grampy: supportive, doting and effervescent Sam Finkelstein, played to freylech perfection by Elliott Gould.

In classic, Shakespearean-style though, during Ira's layover at the airport, on his way to "stupid Florida", he meets fellow holiday misanthrope Mikey Amato: a poor, Christian boy of newly-divorced parents who -wait for it- wants nothing more than to spend Christmas on a warm beach with some rich grandparents. Poor little shnook, he's on his way to "stupid Christmastown" for a week of gift-giving, parade-going, snowman-building and cocoa-drinking with his gentle, gentile, WASPy cousins, who, fortunately, haven't seen him in quite a while. Boom! A quick switch of some nerd glasses, an old parka, bangs brushed down and the convenient exposure that even Ira's own grandparents haven't seen him in quite a while either, and voilà! You've got The Switchmas. "That's no Finkelstein! It's a different kid! What, is he blind?!"

There's even a pup. Any good holiday film has a dog. This little guy is Killer, a.k.a. Mistletoe: a big-headed, sweet-eyed pit bull who brings to mind The Little Rascals' Petey.

To boot, if you happen to have a grandparent-Jonesing, Switchmas can assuage that, too. Mikey's all too-foreign poolside, beachfront, grandparent-sojourn in The Sunshine State is a non-stop party of chocolate geld, fruity drinks, positive affirmations and socks-and-sandals. (To this girl, it sounds equally perfect to my own Christmastown luxuries.)

(Can we talk?) Raised in a beautifully festive Christmas household, as in Mom could teach Martha Stewart a thing or two, I was annually blessed with a pile of presents that would make Santa blush and enough hugs and kisses for a Strawberry Shortcake episode; it was a veritable embarrassment of riches that happily continues to this day. What did I lack, however? Grandparents. Always feeling I missed out on something grand in this respect, characters like Sam and Ruth Finkelstein bring a broad smile to my gentile pearlies. Moreover, my paternal great-grandparents and grandparents were Jewish, hailing from Vienna, Austria and, eventually, New York City (The Bronx and Long Island): Jakob & Irma Gerstl, and Rudi & Rosalyn Gerstle, respectively. Because I never got to know them, my noodle has compensated over the years with a special love for vintage handbags, antique jewelry, The Golden Girls, Agatha Christie novels and Queen Elizabeth II. (What is in Her Majesty's purse, BTW? Did you notice she even has it next to her on the floor in the 4G Royal Portrait? Dying to know. I bet Werther's Originals, a Waterman pen and a surplus of Irish-linen hankies.) As Angela philosophizes on The Office, "Some of us don't have grandmothers. Some of us have to be our own grandmothers."

(Back to the film ... ) Best of all, for those of us endlessly searching Netflix' "Recently Added" queue for the unequaled, quintessentially '90s TV-series Northern Exposure, the fair Cynthia Geary plays Libby Wilson, the beautifully-blonde auntie with the rosy, mountain-air glow who awaits her, fortunately, long-unseen nephew in Christmastown, WA. True, she is meant to look haggard and toiled, the overworked mom of three and neglected wife to an alcoholic, unemployed schmegegy of a dad; but the MUA failed here, folks. Despite the tousled locks and the persistent frown, Geary (Northern Exposure, Smoke Signals) looks as fresh-scrubbed and nature-girl beautiful as she did twenty-plus years ago as Shelly Tambo-Vincour in the wilds of Cicely, AK. (Apropos, Northern Exposure was shot on location in Roslyn, WA; Switchmas was shot in Leavenworth, WA and Seattle.)

As with any good film serving as part-morality play, there are a few direct lessons involved. Unaware of the notable, Jewish contributions to Christmas song and film? Pay close attention to Christmastown's Santa Claus, Murray Lefkowitz. (This means you, Garrison Keillor.)

"A Jewish Santa?"

"Who else would work on Christmas?"

Fretting about the melding of Hanukkah and Christmas on the proverbial celluloid? Meh. Christmas is a mélange, a spiritual and pagan amalgam of millennia stewed in winter celebration, thanksgiving, festivity and bringing a little light to the shortest, darkest days of the year. The Christmas we know today was not celebrated until 4thC C.E., when Emperor Constantine defected from his pagan beliefs and essentially founded Christianity. He declared the 25th as the certifiable day of joy to coincide with the same time during which the ancient Babylonians, Romans, Celts and Norsemen had already been celebrating for eons, knowing full well he would not be able to stop them from said-jubilation and Bacchanalian endeavours.

In the end, I am a wordsmith; words mean something to me and are not to be tossed about hither and thither. Therefore, I refrain from the ignominy of such phrases as "government aid", "literally starving" and, worst of all, "instant classic". However, I am finding it sehr difficult to refrain from the latter. Switchmas might just be that, an instant classic. Only time will tell, and JennyPop's annually-updated, recommended, Christmas and Hanukkah viewing list.

Because this stuff is important, especially if your name is listed:

Directed by

Sue Corcoran

Written by

Douglas Horn

Angie Louise

Sue Corcoran

Cast

David Deluise as Max Finkelstein

Elijah Nelson as Ira J. Finkelstein

Elliott Gould as Sam Finkelstein

Angela DiMarco as Rosie Finkelstein

Justin Howell as Mikey Amato

Cynthia Geary as Libby Wilson

 

 

Follow @JennyPopCom #Christmasfilms #Switchmas

 

For those of us robbed of a snowy holiday season in California, aliens landed last night and planted lei-bedecked Christmas rock-trees to proffer us a tropical holiday ... or, to distract us and divert our attention while they commence colonization.

 

 

Psst ... they must be the aliens. It appears they have divined the sculptures in self-portraiture.

Merry Merry to All!

(Hannah Hart here, btw and still looking for Jen ... maybe lost somewhere in Disneyland? For the continuing stooory of moi, Miss Hannah Hart, ghostdame of the Hotel del Coronado, jazz on over to my geek site! There's been a change of my holiday plans; I also intend to check out the Rose Parade this year. Check back at www.goodtobeageek.com.)